Carry on Emmanuel

Shane Brady

A healthy serving of irony is essential to any football fan's diet. Spurs fans might have exceeded their recommended weekly dosage at the Emirates on Saturday when their hosts started chanting, “Are you Tottenham in disguise?” Funny, but perhaps a little harsh after serial bridge-burner Emmanuel Adebayor got himself sent off early on for a studs-up lunge on Santi Cazorla.

Referee Howard Webb, who leads the league in assists, had no choice but to issue a straight red, which sadly ruined what promised to be a great game.

It was not before Adebayor had put Spurs ahead and taunted Gunners fans as he had infamously done at Manchester City.

It was different scene in the tunnel before the match, however, with cuddles and kisses all round between the French types, making it look more like a baby shower than a North London derby. That was until Adebayor tried to join the love-in, only to be met with an icy silence and a swoosh of the braids from Bacary Sagna. So no hard feelings there then.

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Incredibly, it was déjà vu all over again on the scoreboard (5-2) as Spurs supporters who have been agitating to see Jermain Defoe line up with Adebayor in attack got only a tantalising glimpse of the little and large combination.

Sadly, AVB's plan-A went out the window after just 17 minutes when Adebayor disappeared down the tunnel of love en route to a three-match ban, meaning they will have to wait quite a while to see their best two strikers in action together again. The return bout at the Lane in March promises to be a cracker.

BEDEVILLED BY A SORE THROAT

Manchester United have plenty of stars but only one Wayne Rooney. Just when it looked like the Manchester clubs had the edge in squad depth in a three-horse title race with Chelsea, a large, Wayne Rooney-sized hole appeared in the Manchester United side at Norwich after a bout of tonsilitis.

Not even Robin van Persie could fill the void, try as he might, coming deeper and deeper to find the ball. Only problem was when he did there was no Robin van Persie up front for him to ping it to.

Even super sub Javier Hernandez seemed less full of Mexican jumping beans without the luxury of watching the game for 45 to 60 minutes before joining in.

It might have been just a blip but Norwich deserve full credit for refusing to be overawed by United. Even Fergie was uncharacteristically magnanimous about the Canaries' plucky performance. It might only have been three points for the strugglers, but on such games winning runs are built.

Same goes for the Saints in their six-pointer, cheekily dubbed “El Sackico” at QPR. Meanwhile, City capitalised on a weekend of upsets, and we have our third new leader is a many weeks. If it goes on like this we might even see West Brom at the summit.

WILSHERE STAYS SHARP

Jack Wilshere's feet have hardly touched the ground. Fourteen months laid up, straight back in the first team at Arsenal then a red card in his second game, and while cooling his heels on suspension, an England call-up! It's been a roller-coaster few weeks for the talented young midfielder to say the least. Arsenal already look a better, more balanced side with him in the middle, and he will only get better with more game time.

The Gunners were firing, albeit against 10 men, with Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the wings, and it would be great to see more of that combination. It is heartening to see a core of young England stars in the Arsenal line-up, as opposed to recent times when they regularly fielded starting 11s without a single English player. But if they let Walcott go, whether in January or at the end of the season, expect a revolt at the Emirates.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Jonathan Walters' opening strike for Stoke in the draw at West Ham was a classic training-ground manoeuvre. He latched on to a low corner and fired home inside the near post to breach the Hammers' impressive defence.

Coach Tony Pulis later revealed the team had practised the move half a dozen times at training over the previous three days and Walters had not put one away. So credit his persistence for trying one more time when it really mattered. The Potters were unlucky not to break their away-drought, rattling the crossbar a couple of times in an otherwise dire match, fitting for a miserable Monday night.

SHIRT COLLECTORS

Poor Andre Santos got roundly bagged for trying to swap shirts with Robin van Persie at half-time against Manchester United. Well, from the “Where are they now?” file comes a young player with a bulging shirt collection of his own: Scott Sinclair.

His deadline-day transfer from Swansea to Manchester City made it club No.10 for the lively winger at the age of just 23, if you include his many stints on loan while at Chelsea. We make him the most travelled player in the Premiership. To be fair, the England junior did crack the first team at Bristol Rovers at just 15. Sinclair has been rarely sighted in Roberto Mancini's star-studded City midfield but came on for a 15-minute cameo against Villa when they were already 5-0 up. Gee, thanks boss. Another loan move could be on the cards but having a girlfriend in Coronation Street, might curb his wanderlust.

1 comment so far

So no predictions about the Chelsea manager being sacked. Nothing learnt to indicate that happening ?